The Ministry of Health reported this Tuesday (30) that the majority of states with doses of dengue vaccines that expire today were able to distribute them to other municipalities, to guarantee the use of the vaccines within the deadline.
“We are monitoring this issue with the secretaries and we received information that there are very few doses and in some states these doses have already ended”, says the Secretary of Health and Environment Surveillance at the Ministry of Health, Ethel Maciel.
Initially, there were 600,000 doses of vaccines that would expire today, but strategies were adopted to redistribute doses and, in some states, expand the age range. “Based on what data we have, there will be no physical loss of vaccines. If it happens, it will be in a very residual form, close to the total of 600 thousand doses that we initially distributed”, explained the director of the Department of the National Immunization Program, Eder Gatti.
To avoid wasting vaccines, the Ministry of Health expanded the target audience, allowing immunization, preferably, for children and adolescents aged 6 to 16 years.
At the discretion of municipal managers, immunization can be extended to people aged 4 to 59 years, which is the age limit specified in the Qdenga vaccine leaflet, approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
